Montana: Cannabis & Alcohol Regulation Division: A Year in Review

Cannabis & Alcohol Regulation Division: A Year in Review

One year after the cannabis and alcohol divisions merged, read what CARD has done and what’s planned for Year Two.

August 2025 – August 2026

Introduction

In August 2025, Montana’s Cannabis and Alcohol divisions merged to form the Cannabis & Alcohol Regulation Division (CARD), bringing two regulatory programs under one division.

Year One focused on establishing a strong foundation for the newly combined division while continuing to serve Montana businesses, licensees, stakeholders, partner agencies, and the public. CARD evaluated workflows, consolidated functions where appropriate, improved coordination between programs and partner agencies, began modernizing systems and processes, and implemented customer service tools.

The merger created opportunities to reassess existing practices and identify better ways to deliver regulatory services. CARD reviewed business processes, technology needs, staffing and organizational structures, customer service, education and outreach, and opportunities to reduce duplication and improve consistency.

Because many of these changes were developed and implemented throughout the first year, Year One was primarily a period of integration, evaluation, and foundation building. It allowed CARD to identify the information needed to measure workload, service, efficiency, and effective program performance.

In Year Two, CARD will use Year One’s groundwork to establish baselines, measure results, evaluate trends, and to guide future improvements.

Building One Division

A central focus of Year One was designing a unified model for the combined division.

CARD reviewed organizational structures, staff responsibilities, workloads, and business processes to identify where functions could be combined or better coordinated. Instead of simply renaming the two divisions under one title, CARD began building shared structures supporting both alcohol and cannabis regulation.

Several major organizational changes were made:

Violation Processing

Alcohol and cannabis staff responsible for processing regulatory violations were joined into one Resolution Officer Unit, providing greater flexibility across both regulatory programs.

Education and Outreach

Alcohol and cannabis education and outreach staff were merged into one unit. This structure allows CARD to coordinate training, stakeholder education, public information, and outreach resources more effectively.

Business and Technology Support

CARD established a dedicated Business Analyst Unit to support the entire division. These employees evaluate business processes, coordinate technology changes, test system improvements, and identify opportunities to improve workflows.

Previously, these tasks were distributed across individual programs. Centralizing the work allows regulatory staff to focus more consistently on core responsibilities while providing CARD with specialized support for system and process improvements.

Warehouse Operations

CARD established a warehouse manager position to strengthen oversight of state liquor warehouse operations and inventory management.

The warehouse expansion project became operational in August 2025. The automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) increased storage capacity and improved efficiency, allowing the Department to keep ten weeks of inventory on hand instead of six.

Evaluating and Improving Processes

A key Year One priority was reviewing existing processes rather than continuing them simply because they were inherited.

Business analysts reviewed CARD’s programs to identify duplicate processes, manual workarounds, inconsistent practices, technology needs, and improvement opportunities.

Examples include:

• Aligning and documenting alcohol and cannabis complaint processes and procedures to create a more consistent approach.
• Consolidating alcohol and cannabis violation-processing functions to create a shared structure.
• Moving responsibility for coordinating technology changes, system enhancements, and testing to the Business Analyst Unit.
• Reviewing business processes to identify future system and workflow improvements.

During Year One, CARD completed 36 technology and system improvement requests, with another 16 improvements in progress at the end of the review period.

These numbers represent work completed or underway during the transition. Because CARD did not have consistent pre-merger measurements for many processes, they are not intended to represent year-over-year performance comparisons.

Building Better Customer Service Tools

CARD improved customer interactions during Year One by implementing a new telephone system with flexible routing and reduced reliance on physical phones.

The system provides reporting capabilities that did not previously exist or were inconsistently captured, helping CARD better understand:

• Call volume
• Peak call times
• Wait times
• Unanswered or abandoned calls
• Call volume by program areas
• Staffing or call-routing needs

Because the system went live mid-year, no full-year comparisons are available.

Year One focused on establishing the tools needed to begin collecting consistent information; Year Two will use this data to create baselines and identify trends.

Strengthening Education and Communication

Education is a critical part of effective regulation. Helping businesses and individuals understand Montana’s alcohol and cannabis laws supports voluntary compliance and helps prevent problems before they occur.

During Year One, CARD merged the alcohol and cannabis education and outreach teams and continued expanding educational resources for licensees, applicants, law enforcement, industry partners, community organizations, and the public.

Activities included:

• Updating training, guidance, and communications following statutory and rule changes
• Updating Montana’s Responsible Alcohol Sales and Service training program
• Providing education on new third-party alcohol delivery requirements
• Conducting webinars, workshops, presentations, and stakeholder training
• Developing and updating educational materials and regulatory guidance
• Providing training and resources for law enforcement and other government partners
• Using partnerships and grants to expand alcohol responsibility and regulatory education efforts

Combining alcohol and cannabis education functions allows for more coordinated and regulatory education.

Improving Coordination with Partner Agencies

Effective alcohol and cannabis regulation requires cooperation among state and local government agencies.

During Year One, CARD strengthened its relationship with the Montana Department of Justice Gambling Control Division, which performs certain inspection and enforcement functions that intersect with CARD’s responsibilities.

Joint efforts included:

• Reviewing the memorandum of understanding defining agency responsibilities
• Revising inspection checklists and procedures
• Improving communication among licensing, inspection, compliance, and education and outreach staff
• Identifying opportunities to improve information flow between agencies

This work will continue during Year Two.

Maintaining Services During Transition

Throughout the transition, employees continued processing regulatory work, assisting applicants and businesses, responding to inquiries, administering licensing and compliance programs, implementing statutory changes, providing training, supporting enforcement, and operating Montana’s state liquor distribution system.

Maintaining these services while implementing new systems, combining functions, and redesigning processes accounted for much of CARD’s first year.

Year One represented both an organizational transition and an investment in the systems and structures needed to support future improvements.

Establishing Measures for Year Two

A key lesson from Year One was the importance of consistent information to evaluate workload, customer service, operational efficiency, and program performance.

Because CARD lacked consistent, uniform pre-merger measurements and implemented new systems at different times, the division is not using incomplete historical data for comparison.

Instead, CARD focused on identifying what to measure and establishing the tools to collect it.

Year Two baselines will be established in:

Customer Service

Call activity and demand

Licensing and Applications

Workload, activity levels, and processing efficiencies

Technology and Process Improvements

Completed enhancements and, measurable impacts

Online Services

Use of TransAction Portal (TAP) and online tools

Education and Outreach

Training activity and stakeholder reach

Responsible Alcohol Sales and Service

Training and certification activity

Warehouse Operations

Inventory management performance and operational oversight

Shared Agency Processes

Coordination efforts with partner agencies

These baselines will allow future reports to emphasize measurable trends and results.

Year Two: From Foundation to Measurement

Year One unified people, programs, processes, and systems. Year Two will use that foundation to measure outcomes and guide improvements.

Priorities include:

• Establishing performance and workload baselines
• Continuing major system improvements, including TAP enhancements and appropriate AI tools
• Completing high-priority process improvements
• Strengthening state liquor warehouse management and oversight
• Continuing process standardization where beneficial
• Using customer-service data to understand demand and staffing needs
• Shared processes with the Department of Justice, Gambling Control Division, and other partner agencies
• Evaluating workloads, organizational structures, and staff utilization
• Expanding proactive regulatory education and measuring reach and efficiency

Looking Ahead

CARD’s first year was about more than merging two organizational charts-it was about building the foundation for a unified division.

Year One, consolidated functions, evaluated existing practices, established shared resources, modernized technology, improved customer-service capabilities, identified system and process improvements, and strengthened coordination with partner agencies.

Equally important, Year One helped CARD identify workload, measure service, evaluate performance, and make informed decisions.

Year Two will use these tools to establish baselines, identify trends, measure results, and continue improving how Montana’s alcohol and cannabis regulatory programs serve businesses, stakeholders, partner agencies, and the public.